Technology Update for 4/11/2009
Screencasting Gluttony: Many screencasting options. Jing Project. Screen Toaster. Skoffer: One Click. Screen Castle. Which one is really the best option? I have no problem with installing software if the tool is useful and provides me options for saving into different file formats and uploading easily to a web site. I’ve preferred the Jing Project up until now. I’m also planning to pay the annual $15 fee for the Pro version.
Firefox Add-ons: Prefer to use discretion when adding Firefox extension due to the loading time of Firefox. Here’s a list of the top 10 extensions. Can’t say these would be on my list.
IPhone Information: Dictionary.com now defines and pronounces words on IPhone OS. This is a nice feature. There are words I still mispronounce like “queue” and “distribute.” Link.
Also, I’m real excited about the possibilities of Read It Later adding content to the IPhone OS, allowing you to archive interesting articles and then sync them for reading offline. Since I have a Touch, I sometimes want to read when I’m not near a wifi connection. Great solution if it works. I might also try out Evernote for this as well. Link
Free! Free! Free: Finding music for students to use in their videos is always a challenge with the strict licensing laws. Our film teacher has the students write to the recording industry for permission to use popular songs in their movies, and they get rejected or receive no reply. The new Free Music Archive might offer an alternative for finding music to use.
I’m also planning to try using annotated pages using Diigo. Check out a sample page here annotated. Annotated article about Ask the Dust, a great book. Will also have to try out Glogster.
Two quick tips for the IPhone/IPod Touch I learned on accident: Hold down top button and click home button and it will take a snapshot of what’s on the screen and saves them into your Photo folder. If you double click the home button, it pulls up the last played song, video or podcast. Funny how I stumble upon these things (sure wasn’t in the instruction manual, or if it was, I didn’t read it.)
For Viewing:
Film School for Video Podcasters. Link.
For Discussion:
Should colleges host email for their students? Read